Love in a sweater
by inluvwidjp
Summary: Marlene takes a bet with Lily to prove how much James loves her and it includes a horrible pink sweater... One shot.. Epilogue on demand...


_**A/n-My dear readers sorry about abandoning the last story, but I love JKR's characters and couldn't write a story about a made up character. If you would like me to continue the story please PM me... For now enjoy this one...**_

**Love in a sweater**

"He loves you" Marlene said in a singsong voice to her redheaded friend for like a millionth time. "Yeah right! James Potter the famous Casanova of Hogwarts would fall in love, that too with me! Its all for the chase Mars" Lily replied to her again like a millionth time. It was a mystery to the whole female population of Hogwarts including Lily herself that why James potter chose Lily of all the beautiful girls in school.. Why Lily?.. Lily was beautiful and kinda popular too but she wasn't one of the sexy flirtatious girls that always surrounded James and Sirius and she was popular for being miss sissy pants as Sirius would call her. Whenever James asked her out she would often hear the other girls shouting out loud "What does he see in her?"... It was enough for Lily to believe she is not made for James, the James potter who could win anybody's heart and ofcourse Lily was no exception. She poured her heart out through her eyes every time she looked at him. She had an inkling that Sirius knew about her attraction and made fun of her for it. James the idiot joined in on him. So Lily was absolutely sure he didn't love her.

She heard a dramatic sigh and snapped back to reality.

"Common Lily look at the candy its such a cute gesture" Marlene said. Alice sniggered beside her. They were roaming around in Hogsmeade. When they crossed honeydukes a heart shaped candy soared towards Lily they looked at the shop. From the window seat James winked at her sitting casually with other maraudrers. Sirius was jumping opposite to him like a monkey doing something that Lily barely registered because she was too busy having a staring contest with James.. Both of them were lost in each other's eyes until the candy started poking Lily on her cheek. She clutched the candy and looked away blushing. She stole another glance towards him. He was laughing at his friends who were celebrating, Sirius was blowing flying kisses at Lily. She dragged her friends and since then they kept trying to convince Lily she is being blind ignoring James's undying love for her.

"I mean common the guy would do anything for you Lily, seriously anything" Marlene continued dramatically. They entered a sweater shop with sweaters in all possible colours and patterns. Marlene stopped them and took out a horrible pink coloured sweater with bright green wizard hat shaped patterns on it. "Here" Marlene said thrusting the sweater in Lily's hands. "I can prove how much he loves you, give this sweater as a present to him for Christmas and ask him to wear it in the party for you, I bet he would happily do that". Lily stared at her friend aghast. "How could I give that to him, its clearly for a female and would look horrible even on you, no no I cant do that to him, no way". Lily had thought about giving him a Christmas present this year since they were kind of friends this year but it was her first gift to him, it had to be perfect. "Fine then accept that he loves you and go on a date with him" Marlene challenged Lily. They had a long argument which ended when Lily bought the sweater. She choose a pretty white coloured wrapping paper with pattern of snitches and broomsticks in various colours for him. This was the least she could do to maintain some dignity in the gift.

Later in the evening, everyone who stayed for holidays were decorating the common room. Almost whole of seventh year stayed for their last Christmas at the mighty castle. They were having a Christmas party next day after the feast in common room. James was standing on a stool, tying up a mistletoe on the ceiling. Lily walked towards him nervously, clutching her gift tightly.

"You here to kiss me Evans" James said jumping down from the stool. Lily rolled her eyes gaining back her confidence at his cocky attitude. She held his hand and pulled him away from the mistletoe towards the couch. He followed obediently and sat down with her. She was about to begin when Sirius sat down putting his arm around Lily which she slapped away in a blink of eye. "What have you got their Evans, a gift for our Jamie boy!" Sirius asked giving insinuating looks to her. She glared at him but turned back to James giving the present to him. "Yes its for you" Lily tried her sweetest possible voice. "Seriously for me" James took the gift and happily started unwrapping it but froze on one look at the sweater. Sirius let out a bark of laughter "Amazing choice Evans" he said thumping her back. Lily ignored him and continued in her sweet voice "Yeah I thought you would look good in that. Will you wear it for me at the Christmas party". James smiled at her sweetly and said "Ofcourse my love" before pulling the sweater over his head. Sirius rolled down the couch laughing "He looks like a pink piggy" he managed to croak out between his laughter. Lily bit her lips to conceal her own smile and hurried away from them towards her giggling friends.

Next day James didn't wore the sweater for the feast and Lily grinned triumphantly at her friends but she was kind of sad, she knew no guy would wear that weird girly sweater but may be she hoped he would do it for her. The feast was as lovely as always but Lily was distracted the whole time. They made their way back to the common room for the late night party. Lily was sitting on a high stool beside the drinks table which were placed by the mauraudrers. She was idly revolving slightly in her stool when she saw James and she literally fell off her stool. James was making his way towards her wearing the pink sweater. All the Gryffindors were staring at him and some were even pointing and laughing at him which made Lily feel horribly guilty about making him do this. But James was beyond caring and may be Lily was mad but he thought James actually looked fine in it, not his usual Quidditch God self, but still he looked fine. When he reached her she looked at him shyly and said "You wore it!"... "Ofcourse I wore it Lily its nice I really like it" James replied politely. Lily was about to explain about her bet with Marlene but James asked her for a dance. They danced together all night long till professor McGonagall came to shout them off to bed.

James went to his dormitory, threw the sweater on his bed and went over to the mirror. The sweater was very itchy and had left red marks all over his neck and portion of hand which his t-shirt couldn't cover. Although he didn't complain and went over to the open window to calm down the angry marks. Sirius for the first time didn't find this amusing. A very drunk Marlene had told him about the bet and he knew it would hurt his best friend's feelings if he knew it was a joke. James actually believed that Lily likes him that's why she gave him the sweater and she would be hurt if he didn't wore it.

Next day it was Sunday, all the pajama clad girls were trying to wake up their hung up roomie and discussing the last night's events. "So now that you accept that our sleeping beauty was right and James loves you, so now you will go out with him?" Alice asked Lily. Lily grinned mischievously at her and said "Ofcourse I would honey! But that doesn't mean we can't have some fun. Lets give him a taste of his own medicine. He bullied my best friend for five years, made fun of my red hairs. Its time to prank our own prankster".

Later in the common room the girls met the sleepy maraudrers going for breakfast. Lily thought James looked really cute in his blue pajama bottoms. She went and pecked him on the cheek in order to execute her plan "Good morning James!" James looked a bit confused but still replied with a grin "Good morning Lils". Lily lost track of what she was about to say to him, she loved it when he called her Lils, a pet name that no one else uses for her. "Shall we go then" James asked offering her his hand. "Er.. No!" Lily sort of shouted out, James again looked confused. She again started in her honey coated voice "Its really cold James you can't go to breakfast without a sweater, wait I'll get it for you" and before James could protest she called his sweater by accio and pulled it up on him. She looked back at Alice and winked, missing the angry glare she got from Sirius. They reached the great hall and it was clear from James' face that he was dreading going in there. He tried to enter by hiding behind Sirius but still everyone noticed him. Everybody in the hall was laughing at James, Slytherins were at the verge of bursting out of joy. James pretty much ignored them and ate his breakfast in silence. After the breakfast Sirius held Lily back. One look at his face and Lily knew she was in trouble. Lily had never seen him like that and she, who shouted at least five times a day on him for his pranks was, for the first time, absolutely terrified of him. He took her hand and pulled her out to the grounds roughly. Instead of shouting at her, he started in a deathly whisper "What do you think are you doing Evans", Lily knew at once that Marlene must have poked out to him "What about all the pranks you both pulled out all these y-" Lily cut off mid sentence when Sirius raised his hand. "Don't you dare say that. James, never in his whole life, tried to hurt you" he was practically shaking with rage still Lily being Lily continued arguing "I'M not trying to hurt him it's just for fun" " Oh really! Doesn't looks much fun to me, have you taken a look at the scratches your bloody sweater made on him and lets ignore the physical pain James can handle that but how do you think he would feel when he comes to know that you were just making fun of his feelings, believe it or not Lily but James loves you more than himself, and for the first time in six years he got some hope that you like him back" Sirius said never raising his voice.

Lily was on verge of tears now, she never thought her stupid prank could hurt him this bad. "I'M sorry Sirius I nev-" "Oh no need to apologize to me Evans, apologize to James and it better be good if you hurt him even a bit you would be very sorry Evans I would make sure of it."

After an hour she got dressed up and went back to the common room to find the maraudrers sitting by the fire. James and Remus were playing wizard chess. She went and sat down beside James. "Hey Lils" he said without looking up from the board. Lily surveyed his neck and hands. She touched a red scratch on his hand. James looked up questioningly. Lily took his hand and pulled him towards the mistletoe he was tying up two nights back. "I am here to kiss you James" Lily said repeating his sentence from that day. James was looking at her frozen so she launched herself on him by standing on tip toes to kiss him. She failed miserably because he wasn't reacting and she couldn't reach him "Oh you are too bloody long" Lily said exasperated. James jerked back to reality and pulled her up in his arms. She shrieked but he stood her up on the stool from the other day so that she was roughly on level with him. Then he kissed her. They broke apart after what felt like years. Lily could see that the whole common room was watching them behind James and she blushed furiously. Maraudrers cheered for them and Lily saw Sirius give her a thumbs up. James asked her for a walk outside the castle. She told him everything about the bet and the sweater with a sweet apology. James who was too happy to get hurt just laughed at her prank. "No but I feel really bad I wanna do something for you" Lily said again and again. "Lils you kissing me was quite enough, if you wanna do more then go out with me on the next Hogsmeade trip" James replied apparently unable to stop smiling. "Ok sure I would love to" Lily replied shyly.

But she still wanted to do something for him...

_**A/n- Sorry guys for finishing here.. I had another story in mind and couldn't stop myself from starting it. If you wanna know what Lily did for James I can write an epilogue for the story.**_

_**Please review.**_

_**-XoXo-**_


End file.
